New Year…New Books…New Reviews…

If you would like to write a review for a book from our library just get in touch and then we can publish your review on our website.
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Book Review: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

This is a very well known and loved story which, until now, I’ve never got round to reading. Having read it, I have loved it. It’s a story about life in America’s deep south, in Alabama, told through the mouth of a young girl, Jean Louise Finch – better known in her childhood as ‘Scout’, for reasons which are never clear – not to me anyway. At the outset of the story, Scout is around six years old and her older brother, Jem about ten.
Scout and Jem have been brought up in Maycomb by their father, Atticus Finch, a lawyer and an older father since the death of their mother and under the sometimes watchful eye of their housekeeper Calpurnia. This has had some advantages as Atticus gives them a pretty free rein, not to run wild but certainly to run free which they are often prone to take advantage of. Along with their friend Dill, Charles Baker Harris, who spends his summers with his aunt Rachel, Mrs Rachel Haverford, they are endlessly creative in the games they invent and play and, often, the mischief they get up to.
Across the way from the Finch House is the ‘Radley Place’, occupied since the deaths of Mrs Radley and later Mr Radley, by their sons Nathan Radley and his younger brother ‘Boo’. To the youthful trio, Boo Radley is a constant source of puzzlement as he is never seen to leave the house and, try as they might, they can never get sight of him.
Rumours abound about Boo and the Radley Place holds a strange fascination for them though they are mostly afraid to approach it lest Boo should emerge and catch them.
A key part the story concerns the trial of a young, married black man, Tom Robinson who stands accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, the daughter of the Ewell family of ne’er do wells who lived on the outer edge of the town. As the local attorney, Atticus Finch has taken on Tom’s defence, much to the disgust of most of Maycomb’s citizens. He is even threatened by the Ewells and other townsfolk but stands by his client and defends him in court, maintaining that Mayella had attempted to seduce Tom, has been seen doing so by her father and beaten by him.
Successful? You’ll have to read the book to find out.
The close of the book describes an attack on Scout and Jem as they’re leaving a school pageant, in the dark and are set upon by an unknown assailant. The story ends with Jem injured, his assailant dead and Boo Radley finally seen outside his house.

Phil Leighton

Book Review: Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee

This book, sequel to ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ opens with Jean Louise Finch (aka ‘Scout’) returning toMaycomb. Having been sent by  her father to a women’s college in Georgia and then pressed by him to go to New York to “start shifting for herself”, she is returning, not for the first time, as a very different young woman from the tomboy of ‘Mockingbird’ days. Met off the train by Henry (Hank) Clinton, her very dear friend, would-be lover, close friend of her deceased brother, Jem, protégé of her father, Atticus Finch, and likely inheritor of the Finch law practice, she is thrown, once again into the small-town life of Maycomb. Maycomb has changed considerably since Jean Louise’s ‘Scout’ childhood, as has she. Atticus Finch has moved from the old family home and, in the absence of Calpurnia, their former cook and housekeeper, his new home is now managed by the very ‘proper’ Aunt Alexander, bane of young Scout’s life.
Strands of the story, sometimes amusing, are occupied with Jean Louise’s relationship with Hank, her much more confrontational relationship with her Aunt Alexander and her aunt’s desire to make a ‘proper’ lady out of her and flashbacks to episodes from her childhood and youth, including her introduction to the ‘Women’s Curse’ and her teenage conviction that she was pregnant because a boy kissed her and put his tongue in her mouth. Both periods and pregnancy were mysteries to her having grown up a tomboy in a predominantly male household but the main and powerful element in the story revolves around the growing movement to liberate the area’s black people from the shackles slavery had left them in.
The story exposes the challenges faced by Maycomb’s white townsfolk as the black population began to push for a new place in society supported by the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People) and the resulting white backlash. In the middle of this tension, Calpurnia’s grandson, Frank, driving too fast hits and kills Mr Healey, a Maycomb man who was known to overindulge in alcohol. Atticus once again agrees to take on his case but this time, unlike in the case of Tom Robinson (see Mockingbird), there’s a new and unexpected, ulterior, motive. To Jean Louise’s horror she finds that Atticus and Hank have aligned themselves with the majority opinion in the town, resistant to the advancement of their black neighbours. This sets up a major confrontation with both Atticus and Hank and breakdown in their relationships. In desperation, she turns to her father’s brother, her Uncle Jack, a rather strange but wonderful character who helps her through the crisis.
Is she reconciled to Atticus and Hank? I’m not telling you; you’ll have to read the book for yourself to find out.
WARNING – You may find, as I did, the words used in this book to describe Maycomb’s ‘people of colour’ offensive. I have to admit that I was surprised, especially as the book was written in 2015.

Phil Leighton

Book Review: Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo

This book is very interesting and it draws in the reader. It’s about a young lady’s longing for a child to call her own. It explores societal and marital pressures of infertility and how it affects a woman disproportionately more than a man. It also deals with mental health issues and the set up and challenges of a polygamous home and its effects on everyone involved.

All of these books and many more are available to borrow now at Blackfen Community Library. Come along, sit and have a read at our community hub and enjoy a fresh coffee from the Rooted Coffee House, our in house cafe.

To enquire about the availability of these books you can login via your membership login or pop into the library and ask our team.